Posted: April 30, 2007

It seems as though wireless carriers have finally realized how ubiquitous text-messaging has become in our society, and their pricing strategies have begun to change to reflect this surprisingly late, but still appreciated, insight.

Earlier this month, Leap Wireless International announced they would now include unlimited messaging in all of their plans. Instead of charging an additional $5 per month for unlimited messaging, Leap has opted to include the feature in all of its price plans, because “SMS and MMS are pretty fundamental communication tools now, just as voice has been for many years,” according to Al Moschner, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Leap.

Not to be outdone, Verizon Wireless has stepped into the unlimited messaging game by including unlimited messaging in a new level of individual and family plans. The individual plans are $20 more expensive per month than their regular plans, and the family plans have increased by $30 each. Verizon Wireless reported that its customers sent and received 17.7 billion text messages and more than 353 million picture and video messages during the fourth quarter of 2006.

“The new plans are in response to customers’ increasing demand for greater text messaging options,” said Jim Naughton, Verizon Wireless’ direct of consumer marketing. “Text messaging has moved from being a nice feature to a necessity for many customers. With the Quick Text features on many devices today, more and more professionals are using this service, in addition to the many teenagers who depend on text messaging for fast communications.”

Most recently, AT&T, the nation’s largest wireless provider, has also unveiled its own line of unlimited messaging plans. Called “Messaging Unlimited” (how did they come up with that one?), the plan provides customers with unlimited text, picture, video and instant messages to any wireless phone in the United States for $20 per month. AT&T had previously capped its messaging offers at 3000 messages per month.

AT&T is also offering an unlimited in-network messaging add-on to its traditional 200 message kit for an extra $5 per month, bring the total price to $10 per month. They have also boosted the messaging capabilities of some of their bundled data packages. The $15 MEdia Works package received an additional 500 messages, bringing its total to 1500 messages plus 5 MB of data transmission, while the MEdia Max package grows from 3000 messages to unlimited text messaging with unlimited data for $40 per month.

Additionally, T-Mobile already offers unlimited messaging for families for an additional $20 per month. Meanwhile, Sprint offers a $10 unlimited SMS package (per-line charge) and includes unlimited picture and video messaging with its Power Vision packs, which start at $15 per month per line.

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